Finding the Real You
by mint256
Summary: Follow the OC Kura when he joins the Investigation team and attempts to Catch the Killer of the serial Murder Case!
1. Finding The Real You

Finding the real you and facing your inner self, easier said than done. You may tell yourself that you will be able to do it without problem, or that you have nothing to hide. Hell I thought I had everything out in the open and that everyone knew who I was, but yet it still appeared and it scared the hell out of me.

Year 2011 July 14

"And in Local news, a high school student saved a young child from getting hit by a speeding car today." I turned the television off, I did the interview once, I didn't need to listen to it again. I glanced around my one room apartment, it wasn't much, but it had a bed, food and a television, that's about it and yet it was home enough for me.

I was in my second year of high school and living alone, every teenagers dream but yet I hated it. With my parents moving around so often for work it made school hard so I finally put my foot down telling them I wanted a proper education. So what happened? I got kicked out. I had made myself I nice amount of money by then so I bought an apartment in the town where we just so happened to be at the moment, sure there was a murder on the loose but I wasn't too bothered by that.

I lived in a small town in Japan called Inaba, it was a quaint little town, complete with a local shopping district and shrine. it wasn't an overly big, well known or have anything of note, except for the face that some idol was from here. Hell, the towns signature dish was grilled steak, not that there is anything wrong with steak that is.

It gets lonely though, sometimes. It's a small town with not a whole lot of anything to do, everybody grew up with each other and with a psychotic murderer on the loose, not very many people were willing to make friends with the new kid. Because, well, you know, potential murderer.

Getting off my bed and I turned to the mock kitchen I had created seeing as the apartment did not possess a kitchen. "Hmm no food" I said to nobody in particular, well in that case I might as well go to Junes, seeing as it was right around the corner it was a much better prospect then having to try and cook something out of, let's see, barbeque sauce, salami and a cucumber that was very nearly a pickle. Picking up my wallet from the table I made my way out into the street.

Junes Food Court

The sweet aroma of cheap food filled my nose as I made my way to the grill, the wondrous food that I didn't have to cook. Taking a glance around I saw that it was pretty empty except for a group of people sitting at one of the tables talking louder than they should have. Sitting a modest distance away, close enough to hear yet far enough to not be suspicious I sat with my back to them and ate my food. It wasn't that I was a snoop but I liked to know what people were saying.

"Hey did you catch the news this morning? Some kid saved this little girl from getting hit" I groaned inwardly they had to be talking about that, that fact almost made me get up and leave, I did not want to hear about it. "You don't think he will be next do you?" Next? What the hell was she talking about.

"There's no way" this was another voice, male this time "The killer just failed with Rise here, I doubt he would try so soon . He is not that insane, after the failed attempt the police are more riled up than ever."

Oh they were talking about those serial murder cases that the town was making a big fuss over, the police had zero leads and could not figure out a motive so why would they think that because i saved that little girl that I would become the next target? Naw I was thinking into that sentence way too much.

"Well let's just be sure to watch the midnight channel once it rains again, just to be sure" Midnight channel? That old myth? Well people have been talking about it but I always liked my sleep too much to ever watch it. I never believed it, staring into a turned off television at midnight on a rainy night and your "soul mate" will appear? It always sounded like a load of crap to me.

Finishing up my food I started to make my way to the grocery department just as one of the people got up in a hurry yelling something about needing to be back on shift. Making it to the elevator I was glad to see that it was empty. It's not that I don't like people but when I have a choice of spending time in a cramped elevator with people or taking the stairs, stairs wins eleven times out of ten.

"Hey! Hold the elevator!" I sighed to myself and looked up. Oh it was one of those teenagers talking about the murder cases. I stuck my hand out to Hold the elevator, I wasn't a complete ass while i would have very much liked to be, seeing as they were talking about me behind my back and all.

"Whew, thanks man, I didn't want to have to take the stairs to the grocery department." Great he was going there too. "You look familiar, do I know you?

"No, probably not, i have a tendency to stick around by myself, however I've seen you in class, King morons right?" I told him just to make conversation. I could handle a classmate for a few min. Hopefully.

"Oh yeah I remember now, you sit in the back corner lucky you. Man that school camp out was brutal hey?" he was obviously fishing for something to talk about.

"Yeah I heard some guys went swimming and didn't know that King Moron was vomiting up stream." You could almost see the sweat drop appear on the back of his head.

"Man, does everyone know about that?" he muttered to himself just as the doors opened. "Anyways I'm Yosuke, I'll see you around"

"Indeed" I said as we parted ways. I checked my watch and decided to just grab a few things as I had homework to do.

July 15

Man why was school so long? I understand the need for an education but did it really need to take up so much time in the day? Lifting my head from the desk I stared at the clock willing it to be at least lunchtime. However it was a lecture and lectures never went fast. Contemplating the pros and cons of falling asleep in Morons class I was called upon.

"Kura-san stand up" Oh crap math. "What is the sum of these numbers?" I stared at the math equation, yep could have been a rocket formulae for all I knew.

"Six" I said hoping that my confidence would win this out for me, but I wasn't hoping for any miracles

"I'm sorry but he answer is seven." Ha I was close, Now, back to those pros and cons.

Afterschool.

"Hey Kura-san" Aw crap that sounded like Yosuke, I turned around and sure enough, there he was, flanked by two other guys one sporting a short bleached blond biker look and another with grey hair. "Hey Kura-san I was won-"

"First either drop the honorific or don't speak. I can't stand it when it's attached to my name." I told him.

"Um right, sorry." He seemed taken aback, damn I was maybe a little harsh there "Anyways we were headed to Junes and were wondering if you wanted to come"

It was actually a tempting offer However I was expecting a delivery so I had to refuse. I told them that and said maybe another day, just to be a little more polite.

"Alright Kura, I'll catch you another time I suppose." With that parting statement they left. I looked at my watch and figured I had time to make a pit stop along the way back.

Chinese diner Aiya

"Hey Kura-kun you look exhausted. Spicy tofu?" Aiya said as I entered the shop.

"Math class is all I have to say, and come on, you have known me for three years. You should know by now that I don't like tofu. However if you could put some spice in a garlic rib I would appreciate it dearly."

"You always did have the weirdest tastes Kura." He replied with a smile on his face.

"And you always know that you will make me just about everything I ask for." I said as I slid into a corner booth.

"Just about. I'll send Aika over when it's ready."

And that was that, there was nothing to do now but wait and contemplate the mysteries of the mysteries of the universe.

"Here you go Kura-kun." A feminine voice said from behind me. More like contemplate the mysteries of Aiya's speed cooking. "He figured you would order this and started before you got here.

"How did he even know I was coming?" I simply shook my head. "Thanks Aika, do you have a moment?"

"Always."

"It's a rather weird question, as in really weird." She just gave me a look, a look that told me to go on. She never really had a way with words. Well I heard this weird thing from this group of people yesterday. They believed, or well thought that I would be the next murder victim. Do you think that that could be true? They never met me and didn't even know that I was around. They were speaking like they were so sure. It has me a little worried actually. What if they are right?"

She just looked at me again. I swear, those eyes could pierce my soul.

I let out a huge sigh. That was a look that said 'Kura, your over thinking this, they probably saw you while you were doing whatever it is you were doing and decided to punish you for eavesdropping on their conversation and you bought into it.' Well that's what I gathered from the look anyways.

"Yeah you're right, I'm over reacting. Good talk" I only received another look. I finished my food and started making my way to the door.

"Kura." Turning around I found Aika standing behind me. "Be careful."

To that I simply smiled and handed her the cash for dinner. "I always am darling, always am." With that I left the building.

I made my way the distance to my house, apartment, room whatever you think that you could call it. I opened the door and flopped down onto my bed. If I wasn't waiting for a package I would have slept right then and there. What did Aika mean be careful? That was weighing heavily on my mind. Could she really be concerned? It wasn't like her. Nah again I'm thinking about it way too much.

My thoughts were interrupted by the intercom going off. "Hello? We have a delivery for you can you come down? We are not supposed to enter this complex, company policy." Fair enough, many companies have that policy. I told him I would be right down.

Front of Apartment Complex

I opened the door to the outside expecting to be greeted by the deliveryman. Instead I was greeted by the elderly lady who lived on the second floor.

"Oh Kura. How are you doing? It's been a while. Have you been eating properly? I'll bring you up some of that wonderful nimono I made for Adachi; he's a detective you know. Very important job." She looked as though she was going to prattle on for a while so I quickly made an excuse to escape, just in time, I didn't know how much of her chatter I could take.

I walked over to the delivery truck. "Hey! Mr. Delivery dude? Where are you?" I hoped that I wasn't hallucinating from dinner when I heard the intercom. Curious as to where he went, I looked in the back of the Truck to find him, only to see a T.V. "hey there are no packages in here..." I made to turn around when suddenly I was being shoved into the back. Was I being kidnapped? What the hell?

I grasped the edge of the truck, there was no way in hell I was going without a fight.

"No, no I must save you!" I looked up only to see a fist descending towards my face. Instinctively I let go of the truck to protect my face and I was shoved the rest of the way in, right towards the television...


	2. That Son of a

That son of a bitch. Throwing me into a truck, who does he think he is anyways? I felt a sharp pain in my rear end, yep right on my wallet, figures. Getting to my feet I decided to do a once over. Nothing broken except my pride, hell I was even unbound this was just getting better and better. Then it dawned upon me, if I was in a truck how could I stand? Looking around I noticed that it was foggy as all hell, I couldn't see more than twenty feet in front of my face, was this a new type of kidnapping, smoke machines and all? Also what was with this oppressive atmosphere?

There was no time to figure all that out, I had to escape I searched the room (for yes I was indeed in a room) for something, anything that I could use as a weapon, or even better an exit in which case there was two a door, which was locked, big surprise there, and a window which was my best bet.

My balance was heavily thrown off, my movements were sluggish, I must have been injected with a sleeping agent, or maybe they used chloroform. Who knows, and I for one did not have the time for speculations. Escape had to be my first and foremost concern at the time.

I made my way to the window, and looked outside. I had no idea what to make of it, the entire area was shrouded in fog and I was in a tower... a tower! Of all the places that he could have chosen. Where do you even find a tower in Japan anyways? Sighing to myself I looked up, now that was not a normal sky it was a mottled red and black. Well that could have been some weird weather phenomenon, which was least of my concerns for the moment.

Walking back from the window and after testing the door which was unfortunately locked, I decided to wait for my captor to come because even with all this weird weather they had to feed me right? What use to them was I if I died of starvation? I chose a spot where I could sit with my back to a corner and still have a clear view of both the door and the window. I decided to take a nap.

Date- unknown

Telling time in here was impossible but judging by the stubble on my chin and the emptiness of my stomach I would have guessed that a day had passed, hope was starting to fade, not of rescue per say but of them bringing me lunch, in fact it was weird that I hadn't heard them at all, I did hear movement outside the door a few times but those did not sound human and that bothered me. I really should have heeded Aika's warning when she told me to be careful. How was I to know that I was going to get kidnapped later that day. Hell how was I supposed to know that I was going to get kidnapped at all. Well there was no use beating myself up about it. The past is that past. Deal with the now and the future will work itself out. Is something my old instructor would say.

Sighing to myself I was beginning to despair, well that's what happens when you are hungry.

"Hunger is the least of your worries little Kura-kun" I spun around to see a figure standing in the middle of the room

"Finally one of you bastards show your-" I dropped off only to see that standing in front of me wasn't an adult captor but, me. I had seen a magician do this trick once, drop a mirror and off of a series of mirrors you could stand in a totally different room. As for why this looked like me, cardboard was my guess. "Funny guys, now drop the mirror" I say walking up to "me" and pushing it. To my extreme shock it falls down. "Holy sweet Jesus on a stick. Your solid."

"Hey now, Pushing yourself around now? Got tired of everyone else doing it so you had to do it yourself?" said the other

"What, the hell? What are you?" I asked slowly backing away, I've heard of illusions but never solid ones.

"I am you, and you are me" said "Kura" "We are one in the same. I know you're wondering what this world is." That's obvious, I think to myself, wait this world? "Little Kura, the one who wants to know everything yet has issues figuring out what anything is." I hear what sounds like fighting down the hall. "Aww did I make you confused? Of course I did, it's easy to do." Behind me I could hear pounding on the door, that was good, hopefully the police, or maybe the local militia. The door finally gave out and crashed open which ended up revealing , not police or militia, but a group of armed teenagers, teenagers? Really? My classmates none the less?

"Look there he is! Kura!" said the biker looking one that I had seen with Yosuke.

"Watch it guys there's his shadow" Said a cute brown haired girl who looked vaguely familiar.

"Ooooh now don't we finally feel important" "Kura" said "All these people finally camp to rescue little old you. Finally somebody cares about you. But what does it matter? They will rescue you, take what they want from you and leave just like everyone else!"

"Everyone leaves him? Is that the reason why he's always alone?" said Yosuke with a questioning look.

"Everyone leaves, Everyone always leaves. I'm a big boy though, I don't need anyone. I decided that after that bitch left. My parents left, my friends left everyone left me to die!"

"That's, not the truth" I said grimacing. These people don't need to know about that. That was my past, a past that was to not be known to the general public, they have no right to my memories.

"Oh but it is. They left you all by yourself. You tell yourself that it's okay and that you don't need anybody else, but the truth is you yearn for somebody to help you, for somebody that you can pour your heart out to. You want somebody to love you!"

"Mans just in need of someone to call a friend..."

"Kanji, now is not the time to learn what he needs" Yosuke said, "we need to get him out of here before-"

"They climbed the tower to rescue you, to save you how does that make you feel hmm? Does that make you feel wanted? Does that make you feel special?" Man the way he said that just pissed me right the hell off.

"Hey, how about you shut your fat mouth, you son of a bitch!" I said feeling my anger rising, it was as though this guy could see my every memory and knew the right buttons to push to rile me up/

"Oh no this isn't good," Brown hair said "He's starting to deny it"

"Let him do it, sometimes a man just needs to stand on his own two feet to come to terms with something." Kanji told the others

"Ohhh, did I make little Kura-kun angry?" "Kura" said "Face it, these are your feelings, for I am you, and you, are me"

I lower my head "No, you are not me" I say feeling the tears run down my cheek, they were warm, a warmth I told myself I would never feel again.

I hear laughter. "Again, say it again you worthless piece of junk" I raise my head and walk towards the fake me.

"You may think you know me but you are wrong, you only think you know me. You are not me, you will never be me, I'm not some person who is anything like you!" I tell him my voice gradually rising as I say this.

"Hahahahaha" "Kura" laughs, a sharp acidic smell assails my senses which was accompanied by black smoke gathering at his feet, my fear instincts finally kicked in when I decide to back away which turned out to be for the best, because out of nowhere it exploded outwards sending me tumbling against the wall. That was going to leave a mark, I thought to myself.

I looked up to see what happened to the fake me, hoping to find him gone out the window, only to find that he was nowhere to be found in his place stood something that looked as though a templar knight had fused with a stereotypical demon, standing roughly ten feet tall wearing plate mail and holding a sword.

"I am a shadow, the true self" It said with a voice straight out of hell "Come show me your true strength!"

"Here we go again" Says the short haired chick. "Again? I didn't have time to continue that train of thought because that was the final kicker the strain of going for a while without food or water had put a heavy strain on my body, now with all this excitement added to the mix was too much for it to handle. My sight faded as I started to I pass out and I for one welcomed the darkness' embrace. 

This all had to be a dream, towers, demon templar and now flying disco boomerang people. That's what I woke up to, well along with a huge battle. It was all too much to comprehend, however it looked like the templar was winning, over half of the teenagers were on the ground in pain. The room looked like a bomb had gone off, hell an entire wall had been blown out allowing us to see the outside.

The grey haired kid, Yosuke and the cute brown haired girl were all still standing and it looked like they were controlling these... things, mythical creatures? I'm pretty sure that's the Japanese god Izanagi.

The templar swung his sword and Yosuke fell, but how, he hit the disco boomerang guy. "Rise!" Ah that was her name "Get him out of here!" yelled the Grey haired one "This is not going as planned" All plans are good until the first shot is fired. That quote applies to more than just war.

"But, Yu, you will die!" shouted Rise "I can't leave you!"

Brave and cute. I stood up, I could fight, I didn't spend years taking stave lessons just to get into shape, well that is why and to have an excuse to talk to the pretty girl in the class but that's beside the point. I started walking towards the templar, picking up speed until I was going at a full on sprint

"Kura what are you doing?" Yelled Yu as I surged past him. These people suffered enough already for my sake, I would tolerate that fact no more. I collided with the thing going full speed intending to knock it out the hole in the wall. It halfway worked, what I didn't intend to happen was to fall out with it.

"Kura no!" screamed Rise as I tumbled out the wall.

Did you ever get a feeling of serenity from standing at a high point and gazing over the horizon? How about a certain thrill from skydiving, or even jumping off of a swing at its full height? This had none of those feelings unfortunately, this was a full oh my god I'm going to die. Some people say that your entire life flashes before your eyes, like your memories on a playback loop. Again I had nothing.

I pushed upwards against the demon, cancelling out my momentum for a split second and making him go slightly faster. Not that it mattered much I was going to die anyways, it was a long fall from the tower to the ground below and it looked hard. In the very least I got to choose my own death. Maybe the bards would sing about it in times to come. I highly doubted that. There was no bards nowadays. Resigning myself to my fate I sighed and closed my eyes. I knew what was coming, I didn't really want to see the reaper when he came for me.

-A short time later! -

I hurt, I should be dead, why did I hurt. I suppose I could be in hell, hell should hurt with the eternal torment and all that. I was also cold. Wasn't hell supposed to be all on fire and all that miscellaneous jazz, maybe it was cold fire.

"Is, is he alive?" Voices, familiar voices! Bonus! Unless they were dead too. Then, not so much of a bonus.

"I think he's just passed out"

I opened my eyes to see the group of teen agers who had come to my rescue. "He's awake!" shouted someone in my ear.

"Yes I'm alive, I'm not sure how but I am. Unless you guys are dead too." Reaching up I poked Yosuke in the forehead. Nope solid so not dead. "Why am I not dead, why am I not injured? Why are you guys not injured? I hurt, I feel as though I actually fell out of that tower." I sent my gaze towards the sky and sure enough the tower was still there, smoking hole and all. "Also how long was I out for? I still feel as though there should be a lump the size of Mount Fuji on the back of my head."

"Let's just say for now we have ways of making sure we don't stay hurt for very long." That was vague as all hell but I was not one to argue with someone who held my life in their hands at the moment. "And as for how long you were out, only maybe ten minutes, tops."

I got to my feet and gave the general area a quick once over, looking at my surroundings but at the same time trying to pinpoint where the demon got off to. "Where is it? Did the fall kill it?"

"He's over there" The one named Yu said pointing.

"That's the one who calls himself me, where's the demon?" surely they should have found its body, if not it was still out there and was surely still a threat.

"That demon as you call it came from your shadow." Said the short haired chick

"My shadow? As in..." I look behind me at where my shadow from the sun should be.

"It's another name for your repressed emotions. We all have them." Said Yosuke. " You have to accept it as your own. Otherwise it will go berserk again.

"But it's not me." I grasped my shirt "I am me."

"It's your emotions Kura. Not your physical self. We all had them. We all went through the same process at one point in the last couple of months. We know it's hard to accept it but it has to be done."

I sighed to myself there was really no point in denying it to them. I made my way over to the false me, the bundle of emotions that called itself me. Their argument had its merits, who would know every facet of my past except for me. Who would have my memories except for me? "My shadow huh, no I don't understand what this means, no I don't understand a lot of things, however most if not all of what you said is true. Yes I wish people would stop leaving me, I have abandonment issues, people push me around, use me then leave. All I want is a friend, one friend who won't leave me behind, someone who I can laugh with, cry to when I need to. I thought I had that before and then she left me for my best friend. It's kind of sad really, so I boarded myself up and told myself that I needed nobody, that I was independent and could survive on my own. But I can't everyone needs help once in a while. So I accept that you are me, and as much as it pains me to admit it in front of all these witnesses, I am you."

He seemed to accept that and slowly disappeared into a mist of blue light which formed into what seemed to be a silver haired infantry man wielding a spear. A voice rings in my head "your strength of heart has been made clear, we grant you the persona Tam Lin."

Looking up the "persona" dissolved into a blue mist which in turn, turned into a card that descends towards me. Reaching out, it lands in my hand. It had a somewhat pleasant feeling it. I ended up pocketing it due to the fact that I had a slight feeling that this card belonged to me.

I turn to the others "Can we leave now? I'm pretty tired and would like to go to sleep and eat something, preferably something meaty."

"Meat! I like the way you think. Hey Yosuke buy me some meat! Some steak sounds good right about now!" man, she sounded giddy, how can you even sound like that when you were just on the ground in pain a short while ago.

"Go buy your own!" the short haired one scowled at him but finally relented. "Come on then Kura, Kanji and I will take you home." Yosuke says

"Sweet" I then notice something out of the corner of my eye which turned out to be something that resembled a blue and red bear thing. "Dudes look out! Weird coloured bear!"

"Who you calling weird?" it says somehow without its mouth moving.

"Holy crap it talks!" this was all too much for my mind to comprehend.

"It's just Teddie, come on we will explain everything later." Yu said to me walking towards the exit.

"Man you guys had better explain everything, tomorrow" I say stifling a yawn

"Don't worry we will"


	3. Backgrounds

Junes Food Court

"So let me get this straight. Just so I know all the particulars or to make sure that I didn't hit my head falling out of that tower. You are telling me, that there is this guy, or group of guys, running around, throwing people who become famous on T.V into the "Shadow World", as you guys call it, which is inside of the T.V in the Junes food court." I ask skeptically

"That about sums up what we have covered so far" the short haired one replied, I do believe her name was Chie.

"You all have got to realize how farfetched that this entire story seems right?" I ask them "Also have you people noticed all the inconsistencies in your guys' theory? First off these people seem to have no prior connection to the first case I'll give you guys that point however, the time between my kidnapping and the story is too short for me to become famous."

"See that's where you are wrong." Yu states looking at me "Everyone around school was talking about it the day you got kidnapped."

"So were the housewives in Junes" Yosuke tells me "They seem to really have taken a shine to you after that Kura."

"Great, am I going to be able to go shopping without being swarmed? Sorry we are getting off track here the point I was trying to make is why was I kidnapped before showing up on the midnight channel? Also if I didn't show up how did you guys know I was in there?" I ask them

"Well we didn't actually know that you were in there, we went in to get Rise more accustomed to the place and to try to measure her skill. The fact that we found you at all is because of her" Chie said "And as for why you were kidnapped before appearing we don't have the answer to that. I'm sorry"

"Well then in that case, I do believe I owe you dinner" I say looking at Rise who looked surprised "Well an extra dinner anyways because I'm starving, is anyone up for some aiya, my treat?"

In the end I was a couple of thousand yen poorer however not as poor as I would be if the girls had tagged along, they said something about studying. Oh well it meant that I didn't have to spend too much money. Plus always get on the good side of the same sex of a group before you try for the other is a lesson I learnt the hard way.

"MmmmMmmm! Man I do love me some Aiya!" Kanji said placing his chopsticks on his bowl "It always hits the spot"

"Kanji, you are one of those people who will eat anything" Yosuke remarked

"So hey, Teddie was it? Why were you wearing that costume inside the T.V world?" I ask the blonde guy

"It's a long story; suffice to say he feels more comfortable in it." Yu tells me

"Very well let's leave it at that. Now I was doing some research on my persona Tam Lin and yours Yu, Izanagi I believe it was called." I pulled out a few pieces of paper " Yu, Izanagi's went like this; According to _Kojiki, Izanagi_ god and _Izanami_ goddess created former Japan islands and many deities after their marriage. But when she was born _Kagu-tuchi_ (incarnation of fire), her "ahem lady parts" were burned and then she died. _Izanagi_ felt great sorrow and he decided to go on a journey to _Yomi_ to take back his wife _Izanami_. Then he found her and he asked her to return with him.

But her answer was "No". Because she was corrupted to eat underworld's foods and she couldn't any longer return to the living world. He still begged her to return with him. And then she tried to ask the master of underworld to be able to return the living world. Instead, while she was asking, never to look into _Yomi_ cavern. Once he accepted that. But he couldn't stand anymore because of waiting for a long time and then he broke her promise and looked into it. He was surprised at her rotten ugly body. She noticed that he had looked herself. Because of broken the promise, she got angry and eight hags (_Shikome_) was sent by _Izanami_ to chase _Izanagi _out of the underworld to kill him. _Izanagi_ burst out of the entrance and blocked with a huge rock in the mouth of the _Yomotsu-hira-saka_ (cavern that was the entrance of _Yomi_). _Izanami_ screamed from behind barricade and told _Izanagi_ that if he left her she would kill 1000 of his people, and he replied that 1500 would be born everyday, if she did such a thing. After running away from _Yomi_, he was cleansing his body at _Ahagihara_. Then he begot _Amaterasu_ (the sun goddess) from his left eye, _Tsukuyomi_ (the moon god) from his right eye and _Susano-oh_ (tempest or storm god) from his nose. These three scared gods would be rule ancient Japan.

"Now the story of Tam Lin usually begin with the warning that Tam Lin collects either a possession or the virginity of any maiden who passes through the forest of Carterhaugh. When a young girl, usually called Janet or Margaret, goes to Carterhaugh and plucks a double rose, Tam appears and asks why she has come without his leave and taken what is his. She states that she owns Carterhaugh, because her father has given it to her. In most variants, Janet then goes home and discovers that she is pregnant; some variants pick up the story at this point. When taxed about her condition, she declares that her baby's father is an elf whom she will not forsake. In some variants, she is informed of an herb that will induce abortion; in all the variants, when she returns to Carterhaugh and picks a plant, either the same roses as on her earlier visit or the herb, Tam reappears and challenges her action. She asks him whether he was ever human, either after that reappearance, or in some variants, immediately after their first meeting resulted in her pregnancy. He reveals that he was a mortal man, who, after falling from his horse, was rescued and captured by the Queen of Fairies. Every seven years, the fairies give one of their people as a teind to Hell and Tam fears he will become the tithe that night, which is Halloween. He is to ride as part of a company of knights, and Janet will recognise him by the white horse upon which he rides and by other signs. He warns her that the fairies will attempt to make her drop him by turning him into all manner of beasts, but that he will do her no harm. When he is finally turned into a burning coal, she is to throw him into a well, whereupon he will reappear as a naked man and she must hide him. Janet does as she is asked and wins her knight. The Queen of Fairies is angry but acknowledges defeat.

"Damn dude that's some research." Kanji says

"These personas are our inner selves isn't that right? Why wouldn't you want to know about yourself? Also Wikipedia is a wonderful thing" I state "But nothing even remotely like this could happen, sure there's always the fact that I could fall off a horse but kidnapped by a fairy and rescued by a maiden? And Yu going to the underworld? That's not likely."

"Hey you were kidnapped and rescued by Rise who sensed you, so it's not totally off you know" Yosuke comments with a laugh.

"So help me if I ever appear before her naked I will probably be killed." I laugh "So are you telling me that the serial killer is a fairy queen? Hey kanji, you got kidnapped by a fairy queen, how does that make you feel?"

"Umm Kura, It's probably not a good idea to tease Kanji like that he has a temper." Yosuke explained warily

"Naw man it's cool, he bought me food so I'll let it slide" Kanji said standing up "Sorry to chow and bail but I've got to help Ma close up shop before it gets too late, catch ya later"

"Oh crap it's that late already? I gotta get to work! See ya Kura, Yu" Yosuke said jumping from his seat "Man I have to hurry."

"Well I suppose I should hit the bookstore before it closes" I say looking for an excuse to leave "I'll see you at school Yu"

I made my way to the southern end of the shopping district. Man was I stuffed Aiya was always delicious. I was so lost in thought that I almost ran headlong into a head of brown hair.

"Oh crap, I'm sorry ma'am" I say as I dodge to the side to avoid a collision. "Wait, Rise?"

"Oh Kura-senpai, I didn't see you there. I'm sorry I'm still a little exhausted from when I got stuck in there." She replied, I hadn't noticed the exhaustion that could be read in her eyes

"It's okay, I know the feeling." I reply stretching "I usually recover quickly but I just can't shake this feeling."

"Neither can I it's as if it leeched the energy from my body and has yet to give it back." Rise replied stifling a yawn

I never actually had a chance to thank her, I suppose now was as good as time as any "Um, hey Rise? I wanted to say thanks, you know, for finding me" I rubbed the back of my head. Why did thanking people have to be so damn hard.

"Um, Senpai? Where did that come from?" she asked color slowly going to her cheeks

"Don't worry about it, it's nothing." I checked my watch, it was nearly sunset "So that's what they meant by its getting late"

"Getting late? Oh no! I had better get going otherwise grandma will start to worry again." The color fled from her face, replaced by a look of panic "She worries that I'll go missing again. Sorry I'll see you later!"

She ran off down the street towards the tofu store, I decided to head home.


	4. Dreams

Home

I made it back home shortly after sundown. My body was tired and my mind was still going over every little detail of today. People who appeared on this, midnight channel,( which could only be viewed on rainy nights at midnight, hence the name "midnight channel") were targeted by a serial killer and thrown into the shadow world where they were subsequently killed by their other selves.

I threw myself onto my bed and growled into my pillow. I liked my nice peaceful life before all this happened. Go to school, play some soccer, do a bit of tutoring for food money, rinse lather repeat. All this mystery was making my head hurt.

Location unknown

It was foggy, foggier than the otherworld was. This had to be another dream, yeah, a dream I didn't fall into my t.v in my dreams. Well I hope to god I didn't, sleep walking would be a new thing.

A voice came from deep within the fog "Hello there, be not alarmed, you are fast asleep in bed, for I have summoned you here within your dreams."

A man with a long nose appeared in front of me accompanied by two women, one appeared to be in her mid thirties and the other looked my age.

"Who are you people, why did you summon me here? Also, what do you mean in my dreams?" man I must have been more exhausted than I thought, that or dinner was giving me hallucinations.

"My name is Igor, and these are my assistants." Nose said motioning to the older one "Margret and Marie" motioning to the younger one "Now we summoned you here to warn you of your future."

"Warn me of my future? Isn't that a bit against the rules of future telling? I thought if you told someone their future it was usually bad and they would do anything to change it, but in the process of changing it they simply lead the way to the future they were told."

"Man someone has been watching too many of these mooviez that I have been told about" Marie commented

"Um movie less o's no z's, but this is getting off topic, there are billions of people on this earth, many of them destined to be something more than me, so why have you decided to tell me, a teenage guy his future?"

"We chose you not because of who you are but whom you are involved with." Igor said adjusting his hands. "and because of whom you are involved with it alters your destiny, making it imperative that you be informed, otherwise a disaster will occur."

"You know, Marie was it? Maybe you're right, maybe I have been watching too many movies. Because this seems like something straight out of one. I'm sorry but you said you summoned me here within my dreams is that correct?

"Indeed it is"

"So this is a dream, that makes me more than a little skeptical of this." I looked at Marie, I thought I had seen her hanging around the shopping district a few times before, but that was probably just my mind playing tricks on me. "Give me something anything that will tell me this is real."

"Alright, tomorrow, go to the shopping district, Marie will tell you all you need to know." Igor replied, looking more than a little annoyed at my hesitation to accept this as reality "Now pleasant dreams"

I wondered what he meant by that, but my vision started fading and I was starting to lose consciousness.

I awoke to the sound of my cell ringing, well that was new, I didn't think anybody had my number except for the school.

"I'm up, I'm up, who is this and how did you get this number?"I ask grabbing the phone from the bedside table

"Um Senpai?" I hear a distinctly feminine voice from the other end "It's Rise, are you awake?"

"Rise, not that I don't appreciate being woken up by a wonderful voice but again, how did you get this number?"

"I got it off of Yosuke, I think he got it from the school, but you're dodging the question senpai."

"Question, question. Which question was that again?" I ask still groggy from my sudden awakening."Question. Oh! Me being awake? Is sort of an answer?"

"I'll take that as a yes. Do you have any plans today?"

Plans, plans. Did I have any plans today? What was today Sunday? I was about to tell her no when I remembered my dream. "Actually I have to stop by the shopping district for a bit but other than that no I do not."

"Well that's too bad that you had something to do after I went through all the trouble of getting this number off of Yosuke."

"Well the thing I have to do shouldn't take me all that long so I should be free after that" I reply rubbing my eyes to help myself wake up, it was really too early for a phone call.

"Well give me a call after wards Senpai, I'll see you later"

"Haven't I told you to drop the honorific's yet?" I ask but she had already hung up "Women" I sighed closing the phone. I checked the clock on the wall, it read eight forty-seven. I sighed to myself, I guess it wasn't too early for a phone call. Well seeing as I was already awake thanks to Rise, I might as well get dressed and go see if I could find out if my dream was truly that a dream or if it was reality.

Shopping District South End

Now where had I seen her before, I know it was somewhere around the metal works, I think. There was a lot of people around for such a small town. I think she wore a blue hat or something. I scanned the crowd searching for any sign of her. Man this is stupid, it was a dream, even if I find her and it was real how am I going to start that conversation? Hey you don't know me but I had a dream where you were going to tell me my future but stuff happened so you didn't tell me and now I need you to tell me now, let's go somewhere where we won't be overheard. Yep, that doesn't scream rape at all.

"Hey, Kura." I whirled around to see the one face I had been looking for, Marie. "The nose sent me." The nose? Man so I wasn't dreaming it. "No you're not Dreaming." Great, now she is not only supposed to be able to tell me my future but now she can read my mind too. "Now you're probably wondering why I know what you're thinking."

"No, I was making a smartass remark about mindreading, now let's get this over with, I have a few other things I wish to accomplish today." I stretched my arms back above my head as I said this becoming more bored by the minute.

"Fine then youstupidjerk. The nose only told me to tell you eight words anyways."

Four words? How can eight words tell me my future? "And what might those eight words be anyways?"

"I think they were 'When the time comes, make the right choice' or something like that."

That was madding unhelpful. "When the time comes, make the right choice? That does not tell me my future in the slightest. Infact, that just raises more questions, least of which is when is the right time and what is this right choice? Is it o be considered to be the right choice for me? Or for somebody else?"

"Hey you stupid jerk, don't get angry at me I just said what I was supposed to say. Now I'm leaving" and with that she simply vanished into the crowds.

"When the time comes, make the right choice." I muttered the words over and over to myself as I walked down towards aiya. After all this confusion it was time to get something to eat.

"Senpai." That sounded familiar. Lost in my muttering I had walked right into the tofu shop. Great, how was I going to explain this, I don't even like tofu. I looked up to see Rise standing in front of me. "Perfect timing, although I thought I told you to give me a call when you were done."

There's my way out of this and I even don't have to buy any tofu. "I thought I would just come pick you up instead." This was my only shot, please don't be busy, I really don't want any tofu.

"Hmm give me ten minutes and I'll be ready to go." Whew dodged a tofu bullet there.

Twenty minutes later

If I had remembered that women take this long to get ready I would have just bought some tofu and called her after. Currently I was leaning against the store staring at the cloudy sky. "It looks like it's going to rain tonight."

"That's how you start a conversation with a pretty girl? Talking about the weather?" Sigh, that girl has quite the habit of sneaking up behind me. Well I always have ways of revenge.

"Yes, that's how I start it with the pretty or the beautiful ones, but you being neither I have other ways." Oh she looked pissed "Now the absolutely stunning girls such as yourself, I invite out for food. So Rise are you hungry?"

She didn't reply for a minute, I may have gone too far with that. Just as I was about to apologise she opened her mouth.

"You're buying." Was a quiet reply

"Pardon me? I didn't hear you properly."

"I said that you're buying, I may be an idol and have more money but your buying"

"I wouldn't dream of it any other way."

Chinese Diner Aiya

"Hello welcome to aiya, what will you have?"

"I'll have the steak bowl"

"I'll have some ramen"

"Thanks Aika" she walked away after taking our orders "So Rise, quick question if I might. Why did you ask me to hang out today?"

"Simple, we are the two newest people in the group so we should stick together." Of course that was the reason.

"Well you went through a lot of effort to get my number calling Yosuke and all. Now why did he even get it off the school, that's kind of weird." She looked like she was starting to panic a little bit. "Note to self ask Yosuke why he had it."

Rise paled "Now senpai, there is no reason to bother, he's your friend and probably just wanted to have it. Now let's leave it at that and talk about something else why don't we?"

We ended up talking about various things around town, friends and making jokes late into the night.

"Kura-kun we are closing up now" Aika said

"Oh is it that late already? Wow okay thanks Aika. Come on Rise we better get you home" I said standing from my chair "How much do we owe you Aika?" I paid her the amount and we left

"Hey Senpai, how come Aika uses honorific's and you don't let anyone else?" Rise asked as we walked down the street

"Why do you use them?" I countered

"Because I'm special."

"Exactly. I have known Aika for years and I just cannot break her of it as hard as I try."Something hit me on the head. I look up and am rewarded with a raindrop in the eye. "Hey we had better hurry up, don't want you to get all wet and catch a cold now do we?"

We sprinted to the front of the tofu shop where I bid her fare well and started to leave but, "Hey Senpai, don't forget to watch the midnight channel tonight okay.?"

"Right, if I'm still awake at midnight, I'm worn out and quite full." I joked

"Oh and senpai, I had fun today, I'll see you tomorrow." With that she went inside.

I sprinted home not wanting to catch a cold myself.

Home 11:55pm

Man, it is so not healthy to consume as much caffeine as I did in order to stay up this late, I would have normally crashed a few hours ago. Only a few minutes to go then I can go to bed. Okay rumor, rainy night, I looked out the window, it was raining so check. Turned off television, check and midnight check I stared into the television, believing this was all a hoax. "This is stupid" I say to myself turning away from the screen. I yawned and closed my eyes.

"So now you want to pay attention to me do you? You think you know who I am?" I open my eyes and stare at the screen what the hell was going on here. I thought I turned this off and yet a high school student was on here talking. "Catch me if you can" the screen went blank. It took me a few minutes to regain use of my body.

I grabbed my phone and called the only number I knew. "Hey Rise sorry for calling so late but did you just watch the channel? And if so what was that?"

"I don't know, I have already talked to the others, we are meeting up at Junes tomorrow after school meet us there, okay." She hung up. Man, where did my quiet life go?


	5. Venture Inside

Junes Food Court

The next day

We were all shocked six ways to Sunday when king moron had been found dead shortly after rise was rescued but none of us imagined that the killer would be a high school student.

"So allow me to get this straight yet again and so we can hear this one more time, this kid, killed everyone, kidnapped you three and is now running amok in the other world? I'm sorry, but I just have to say this but, really? I just don't see it." I say opening up discussion

"He did say catch me if you can, that doesn't sound like something a victim would say." Yukiko explained "Wouldn't it be more along the lines of come help me?"

"You have a point but come on. This guy is tiny, do you really think he could kidnap kanji?" I made a point to look at kanji who, for fun, went out and stomped biker gangs who annoyed his mother.

"You seem pretty defensive that it's not him Kura, do you have any proof that it's not him?" Yu said giving me a pointed stare, I was getting a few of those.

"Hey hey hey do not get me wrong here if this is the guy I'm all for hanging him from a tree if for what he did." I say "But what if he didn't do it and he was just thrown in?"

"You know senpai has a point you guys, we are jumping to conclusions here." Rise said to my defense

"Our first priority should be getting his ass out of there and then we can question him, Rise should go see if she can find him but in case not we should all go find out who he is, anything will help."

"He's right" Kanji said while rising to his feet "The longer we stay here the bigger the chance he has of finding a way out. What are we all waiting for? Let's go find out who this guy is!"

I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes. I had never seen that guy before which means that he most likely comes from another school, there was always a chance that he had a part time job somewhere but without a name or a photo asking with simply a description was almost pointless. We would have to ask someone who had information on the suspect. But who would have that? Police would. I felt a tap on my shoulder. Opening my eyes I saw that everyone had left already. "Um Senpai?" Well almost everyone anyways.

"Sorry, I was thinking to myself, trying to think of places for information."

"Did you come up with any thing?"

"Unfortunately nothing the others wouldn't think of." I explained my theory about maybe obtaining a name from the police, maybe the detective that that Yu kid I heard was staying with.

"Or Naoto perhaps." Rise commented

"Naoto? Who is this Naoto?"

"Naoto is a detective who was assigned to this murder case. We have met him around a few times while he was investigating."

"Well it's a start I suppose. How long was I sitting here?"

"About ten minutes. Everyone already left." Great just leave the new guy without telling him. "I was just on my way to go search for this guy inside the T.V, care to join me?"

"I don't see any harm in going to back you up."

T.V world

"Man this fog is still as bad as ever." I say waving my hands in front of my face trying to clear it away.

"Oh right you never got your Teddie glasses did you?" I looked at her face and sure enough she was wearing a pair of pink glasses. I walked up to her and gently plucked the glasses off of her face. Wearing them, it was as though the fog did not exist. I could see for hundreds of meters plus the headache from the atmosphere was going away.

Only with them on did I truly notice my surroundings. It was as though someone had taken a broad way stage, complete with catwalks and all, and yet the ground was covered in those chalk outlines that police used to mark where bodies were. It was quite elaborate.

"Um Senpai? I kind of need those to find this guy." I apologised and handed her back the glasses

"Remind me to ask Teddie for a pair of those. Now we should do what we came here to do."

"Your right." Rise reached out and a glowing blue card appeared which she held against her heart. "Come, Himiko." The card burst into a flash of light and when it cleared there stood her persona. Himiko was absolutely normal human being, if a little tall, from the neck down. However her head was like a kind of radar dish would be the best way to describe it. She was standing behind Rise holding a visor over her eyes.

"Well that's probably a better way of searching than looking by foot. Does it work like a radar?"

Her persona disappeared in a flash of light "It gives me a feeling of my surroundings and what's in them. Right now I can feel that there is someone in here but without knowing something about them, I just can't find out where they are. It's rather annoying."

"Hey, it's better than anything I could do." I say trying to cheer her up "If it was something I had to do I would end up walking around in circles for hours, maybe days, trying to find this guy. Even then I would probably end up getting lost. So don't fret about it too much, we have everyone looking for information on this guy."

"Your right. Hey you haven't been in a battle here yet have you?"

"No, well unless you count tackling my shadow out of the tower window, I figured I would just pick it up as we went along. Besides how hard can hitting these things be?"

"Well it's actually very draining on your body, you will mostly use your persona to fight which will drain your energy and cause damage to your body." Rise explained "it's quite taxing"

"It will cause damage to my body? What kind of damage?"

"Depending on how you use it, usually its nothing more than minor lacerations, which also using our persona's we can also heal quite easily."

"Well that sounds quite, well, dangerous don't you think? But as long as we can cure our injuries I suppose its okay."

"Come with me, let's get you a little more used to things." She grabbed my arm and dragged me into the fog.

Marukyu Q striptease

"And here we are, the place where I was taken." Rise said walking up to the entrance.

"This is a..." I was at a loss. Rise was rescued from a strip club. Who would have guessed? "Anyways mind telling me why we are here?"

"We are here to get you some combat experience before we go after this guy, obviously." She replied rolling her eyes as if it were the simplest thing in the whole T.V world.

"Just the two of us are you sure?" She gave me a pointed look. It looked like I had no choice "Well then let's go."

We walked into the club and I was immediately faced with a wall of lights, sounds and fog. Quite honestly, I had a headache in moments. "Man, this place has quite an atmosphere wouldn't you say?"

"Indeed it does Senpai. Now let's get started, I'm reading a single shadow up ahead."

Great, at least I didn't have to fight half a dozen all at once. Together we ran up the hallway to where Rise said the shadow was. What I found was a Statue. Not a shadow, it was a sort of relic. "Um Rise, that's a statue"

"Thank you Captain obvious that's a shadow called a Creation Relic." Well I was right about the relic part. "We are lucky because your persona has two types of attacks, physical and electric. This foe's weakness is electricity."

"Well then I guess we are lucky in that case. Now, how do I summon my persona again?"

"Imagine your innermost self, the embodiment of whatever it is that you use to draw upon your power."

The embodiment of whatever I draw my power upon. I closed my eyes and imagined my new friends, the happiness that I felt now that I had some to call my own. I felt as though a card was floating in front of my face, I reached out to it and felt the power rush through myself. Opening my eyes I saw my persona Tam Lin standing there facing me with his spear in hand.

"So, Kura-senpai, how do you feel?"

"Woah, I feel, strong." That was the truth, I felt better than ever before.

"Awesome! Now do you think that you are able to take that one out?" she asked pointing to the creation relic that hadn't noticed us yet.

"Yeah, I think I got this."

"Remember its weak to electricity"

"Right!" I looked at the relic and imagined a large bolt of lightning hitting it. "Ziodyne" I said as it struck. The relic fell to the ground as if it was stunned.

"Hit it again!" Rise shouted in encouragement and I was happy to comply. I ended up hitting it twice more before it finally disappeared into a black mist.

"Alright senpai! You did it!" she said running up to me.

"Wow now I know what you mean when you said it drains your energy." I felt as though I had been back at my stave lessons again.

"Right I forgot that you don't have the glasses, the fog seems to drain your energy if you're not wearing them it seems."

"Well you can certainly say that once more"

"All right, you seem to have the electricity skills down so let's try some physical, now these ones will hurt you a bit but I do have some medicine to deal with that. Now there is a group of three more shadows up a little bit farther up."

"And then we are done?" I ask

"Yes Kura, then we are done, and then you can buy me dinner."

"I can buy you dinner? Aww well let's get moving I'm hungry." We sprinted down the hall yet again until we encountered another relic and a couple of huge floating pairs of dice.

"Now imagine your persona fighting them while using his spear."

Closing my eyes yet again I pictured Tam Lin striking all three of them down with his spear. I felt a searing pain along my arm, I looked to see a major cut running from my elbow to mid for arm, however all three of the shadows were gone.

"Ouch. I thought you said it would be a minor laceration, not a full gash in my arm." I watched blood slowly well up in my arm. "now would be a good time for a bandage or something.

"I didn't think that you used a highly powerful physical attack, I guess the more powerful it is, the more harm you take, I'm so sorry senpai."

"That will be forgiven on one condition."

"What's that"

"How about some of that medicine so I don't bleed out?" she took out some sort of leaf and placed it against the wound "Are you sure that's medicine?"

"Yes I'm sure, you won't even have a scar after its done." Sure enough I could feel my skin stitching itself together. I lifted the leaf off and Rise was right, not even a thin white line remained.

"Well that's some leaf you got there. But we should head back we have been in here a while, they might just think something has happened to you."

"Good point but you should remember everybody carries a weapon so that they aren't always relying on their persona. Yu uses two handed swords, Yosuke uses knives, Chie uses greaves, Yukiko has a fan and kanji uses big blunt objects like shields or tables."

"I'll pick something up"

Central Shopping District – North End

Chinese Diner aiya –evening

Well it turns out that we weren't the only ones who had the idea of meeting up at aiya for a bite to eat, we ran into Yu and Yosuke sitting on the stools.

"Hey guys, any luck on the investigation?" Rise asks taking a seat at a table where I joined her.

"We learnt that he had a part time job here in the shopping district from Adachi which was a solid lead where we learnt that some kids were waving around yearbooks with him in it, but they weren't there today so we were going to come back tomorrow." Yosuke explained " You guys find anything?"

"Kura accompanied me into the T.V while I was scanning for him, unfortunately all I could tell was that there was someone in there. Nothing more than that."

"It took you all afternoon to do that?" Yu asked

"Well I also too Kura to take out some weaker shadows as practice"

"Wait wait wait. You took him in alone? What if something went wrong? You can't fight, you guys could have died!" Yosuke exclaimed

"You can't fight?" I asked Rise, that was news to me

"No, I am what you would call their support."

"Aww well what's done is done you can't get mad at us anymore. Hey Aika, one extra large bowl of ramen please"

"Coming right up Kura-kun"

"Hey how come Aika is allowed to use honorific's?"

"I explained this once already I might tell you later if I feel like it. Anyways who's this Naoto that Rise mentioned earlier?"

"Naoto is a detective that was assigned to the murder case by the prefectural police from the big city just before kanji went missing" Yosuke explained "He has been poking around ever since."

"Ah okay that makes sense"

"Oh yeah one more thing. You got me curious about the back story of my persona but we don't have a computer at my place, could you do me a favor and print it off for me?" I told him I would and he told me the name of his persona.

Home – late evening

We all ended up talking until Aika kicked us all out yet again at closing time. I had ended up walking Rise home afterwards before I returned home myself. I kicked my shoes off and booted up my computer. I pulled up a couple of websites I used to find out the stories behind my persona "Let's see Rise's was Himiko I think." I pulled up the web page about Himiko and read.

Himiko was an obscure shaman queen of Yamataikoku, an ancient country within the islands that would become Japan. According to early Chinese history, people in the country agreed to elect a woman for their ruler, so that she ascended to the throne, successfully uniting the country and ending the prior Emperors' eighty years of disturbances and warfare. Her skills in magic and sorcery were highly respected by her people. She is said to remain unmarried, living in a beautiful palace, surrounded by towers and stockades, where a thousand women and only one man served her as attendants, along with countless imperial guards watching on each corner of the palace. Her reign was strict and disciplined, but peaceful. She is also mentioned to have a good connection with the Wei Kingdom. The people of Yamataikoku took her death as a great loss, and they did not obey or respect the new king's order, until one of her relatives, a thirteen-year old girl, was made Queen. History involving early Japan does not mention her at all, but she is often considered a legendary figure. Nowadays, her existence is still debated among scholars and is considered to be one of the most controversial debates of ancient Japanese history.

Well then that was something new, she had the embodiment of a queen inside her. That was interesting.

Now Yosuke's was _Jiraiya_ I guess his was the disco boomerage guy I had seen when I had first been in the T.V world ,Now Jiraiya originally known as Ogata Shuma Hiroyuki, is the title character of the Japanese folktale _Jiraiya Gōketsu Monoga_. He is a ninja who uses shapeshifting magic to morph into a gigantic toad.

A shape shifting toad, something tells me he wouldn't be too entertained about that one. And on that note I decided to go to bed, we would resume the search tomorrow and I was exhausted from the events today.


	6. Splitting Up

Yasogami high- morning

With King Moron dead we now had this chick called Kashiwagi, who seemed to think the entire world revolved around her so called "beauty", working as our teacher within minutes it seemed that the entire class wished that king moron was back.

"Man just when you thought things couldn't get any worse they stick us with Kashiwagi."

"I know what did this class ever do to deserve this?"

I placed my head on my desk, this was getting insane. I can handle king morons endless taunts and insults but this, a woman obsessed with beauty that isn't there? I think I'll ask if I could borrow those head phones that he always wears on his neck.

I looked at my arm where there should have been a nasty cut but there was nothing. I wondered if I had actually dreamed it all.

"Kura could you answer the question please?" Kashiwagi asked pointing at a question

I was about to say that I wasn't going to answer because I didn't know when the lunch bell rang.

"Man, she's worse than moron eh Kura?" Yosuke said walking up to me "Anyways you busy?"

"If you want me to do something it has to be something I can do while eating." I say pulling out my lunch.

School Rooftop

The entire team had gathered in order to go over the information that they had gathered so far. But there was nothing new besides what I had already heard, so I simply sat with my back against the bench and started on my lunch. Lost in the deliciousness of the lunch I lost track of the conversation.

"Kura. Kura? Anything to add?" Yukiko asked tapping my shoulder.

"Well that depends, on one thing."I replied trying to remember what the conversation was about and failing on a global scale.

"That is?"

"What is it that we were talking about again?" I swear you could see the sweat drops on the back of every ones heads as I said that. "I mean, I am cool with whatever you guys decided on, plus I don't have any information."

"All right here's the plan." Yu said I guess he was the de facto leader of the group "Yosuke, Teddie, Yukiko and I will go on and find the guy from his class and see what we can learn. Kanji and Rise, go get whatever supplies we will need for a rescue mission. Chie, you take Kura to go get armed."

"Armed?" I asked, I had drifted off again, lured by my lunch I raised my arms "I already have two arms." Yep there was the sweat drops again. I had a feeling that that was not what they meant. "Oh you guys meant like weapons right?"

Central Shopping district – South End

Diadara Metal Works

I walked in and it was like a furnace of heat blasted through the door. I looked at the far end of the room and sure enough there was a full forge running back there. Looking around I saw that the walls were lined with all sorts of weapons and armor, ranging from sets of plate mail and swords to knives and greaves.

"Well this is very, elaborate" I say to Chie "Now what should I use I wonder?"

She picks up a heavy duty battle ax "How about this? This looks like it could do some damage"

"Chie." I take a look at it, "I don't think that would fit in the television, it's not like we are climbing a tower here."

"Hmmm you may have a point there. Anything you good at?" I told her about the lesions I took as a child. "I got it! Wait right here" she took off into the back. I went over and browsed through the knives section, they had some pretty neat ones there. I remembered that Rise didn't fight or even have a weapon. I bought a small one that I thought she would be able to use.

"Kura! I've found the perfect thing for you." She handed me a foot long silver cylinder with a pointed end and a button at the bottom. "Point it straight up and press the button.

I followed her instructions and sure enough it extended to a five foot long spear. I followed the blacksmith into the back room where he had some targets set up. I tried out some simple jabs and swung it around for a few min to get the feel for it. It was quite light, very sturdy and incredibly sharp. It was even nicely balanced. I felt that if I put on a set of plate mail and a helmet that I would actually become just like my persona. Pressing the button I watched it return to its compressed tube.

"I'll take it" I said with a grin on my face

Central Shopping district – South End

"So how did you guy's ever find that place, and how come he never asks questions when a group of teenagers comes in and buys a bunch of weapons and armor?" I asked Chie

"Well I heard about it from some guys in class and as for why he never mentions why we are buying weapons, I suppose it could be because we are the ones keeping him in business I suppose."

"Fair enough, you should give the other group a call and see if they have found out what we need." If you guys have ever heard of the saying 'speak of the devil and the devil shall appear' well now would be one of those times, for no sooner had I said that then had Chie's phone rung and we all got told to meet up at Junes. We had our lead.

Junes – electronics department

Chie and I were the first ones to arrive followed shortly by Kanji and Rise.

"So you guys got some supplies for us?" I asked eyeing the bags they were carrying.

"Yes we did but don't get ahead of yourself, we need to make sure everyone has enough."

We ended up divvying up all the supplies and just finished up as everyone else arrived.

"Man I still cannot believe that this T.V is a sort of portal to another world, hey Yosuke, what happens if this thing gets sold?" I asked before we went in

"Aw crap I never thought about that. When we get back I'll put a do not sell, display model sticker on it just to be sure."

"Food for thought"

Yu showed us the photo he had recovered from a teenager handing them out. Sure enough it was the same teenager we saw on the midnight channel, underneath the name read Mitsuo Kubo

"That's our guy" Kanji said "I'm going to pound his face in!" Yep I knew I had I had him pegged as the punch first ask questions later kind of guy.

"We have our lead, Rise, you should be able to pinpoint his location now." I shouldered my backpack full of miscellaneous supplies and snacks. "Now who wants to jump in first?"

T.V world

Void Quest

What was I expecting another strip club? Maybe another tower perhaps. No this place looked like it was straight out of an eight bit game. And I loved it.

"Man this is retro" I say as we walk towards the entrance.

"Your right this is old school" Yu says standing beside me.

"You gotta admit it, all guys love their games" Yosuke says.

"And all girls love Teddie." Teddie says hopefully to no avail.

"Hey Ted, do you have a pair of glasses for me? This fog is a royal pain in the ass to see in." In response I received a pair of grey and black glasses. Oh yeah that was much better. "So how are we doing this? A simple divide and conquer or are we going up as a single group?"

"The divide and conquer sounds like a plan we never really had enough people to go before. Yosuke you take Chie, Teddie, Kanji and Yukiko. I'll take Kura and Rise"

Wow these teams seem really unbalanced but what the hell more fun for me. We all went in at the same time and split off at the first intersection of hallways.

"All right Kura, let's see what you can do." Yu said nodding to two shadows that resembled stone arms wielding swords.

"Kura, you're in luck, their weakness is electricity." Rise said from behind us.

"Got it. I drew upon my power and summoned Tam Lin, I imagined bolts of lightning hitting them however it would only hit one at a time, which was draining and took a lot of time, but within a minute they exploded into a puff of smoke.

"Not bad but you did pick up a weapon in town did you not?" Yu said holding up his own katana.

"Of course I did." I pulled out the cylinder and pressed the button revealing my spear. I reached into my backpack and handed Rise the knife I bought. "I know your just our support but what if you get attacked or separated and we can't help you. It's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it." She took the knife rather hesitantly as though she didn't know what to do with it.

"He does have a point Rise, some things are beyond our ability to fight and divide our attention to protecting you." Yu said nodding towards the knife "Now we should carry on."

And carry on we did. We ended up going through an entire maze of hallways up a few flights of stairs and by a few I mean a lot. There seemed to be an endless amount of shadows and with only the two of us, we were wearing down incredibly quickly. Although it was easy to follow our progress by the scorch marks on the floor. A mixture of lightning and fire from one of Yu's many persona's left the floor covered in a smoky haze in combination with the fog. After a particularly nasty battle with a group of what appeared to be tanks we were covered in cuts and we were heavily exhausted.

I collapsed against a wall unable to continue on and on the other side of the hall Yu did the same. "I can't believe we ran out of medicine and those awesome seeds that seemed to give me more energy, hell I'm even out of snacks. Hell again, we don't even have any of those things that take us back to the entrance." I looked at Rise who was still unharmed thankfully. "Didn't you say our persona's could heal us?"

"Some of them can. Yukiko's, Teddie's and Yosuke's anyways, the rest of us are out of luck anyways." Rise explained to me as I looked at another rather nasty cut in the same place my first had been. I wonder if it would scar this time, well if we got out of here anyways.

"Hey Rise is it possible for you to scan for the others? They have healing things I bet." I ask getting to my feet.

"Your right, I'll see what I can do." Within moments Himiko was there and rise was scanning the dungeon for sign of the others.

I hope they aren't too far, we can't hold up too much longer. I looked over and Yu had his eyes closed and was breathing quite heavily. This wasn't good. I didn't want him dying on me. Something tells me that the others wouldn't be too happy if I let their leader die.

"They are up on the next floor" Rise told us dismissing her persona "They aren't moving from one room so I'm guessing they are waiting for us because we haven't seen them in a while."

"Well I hope your right." I took a look at Rise, even though the two of us were sitting here wounded and probably none too good to look at, she was still there standing strong. I was kind of jealous. "Hey Rise?"

"What's on your mind Kura-Kun?" She asked taking a seat beside me

"I don't want to sound like a downer here but, what do you think happens when get killed by shadows in here? Well not to us I know that we end up back in the real world once the fog lifts. But like what happens to our weapons?"

"And here I thought it would be something depressing. Well let's not find out okay?" She Replied giving me a light smack on the shoulder. Sighing I rose to my feet.

"Come on get up" I said giving Yu a light kick in the ribs "They are up on the next floor, we have to move quickly." He opened his eyes and simply groaned at me. Man he must have been more exhausted than I thought. It took a few tries but I did get him on his feet.

"I don't know if we will be able to win another battle." Yu said lagging behind "I'm exhausted." That lazy bastard. I slung him over my shoulder helping to take his weight.

"Come on you lazy bastard, we are moving." Damn now I sound like a drill sergeant.

"Kura, there's a group of shadows up ahead." Rise warned. Well now that was just great. I put Yu down and activated my spear cylinder.

"Okay, I'll take them out, be ready to follow right behind me." I charged towards the overweight police officers spear first. I stepped under the first shadows swing and stabbed upwards through its shoulder. Unfortunately that opened me up for an attack. I summoned Tam Lin in order to block the inevitable attack while I recovered. Jumping up I managed to plant both feet on the shadow I had just stabbed and used it as a spring board, propelling me and my spear directly into the other shadow turning It into a puff of smoke. Turning around the one that I used as a spring board and saw that I royally pissed it off. It swung its arms at me like a madman , it was all I could do to block the attacks and live, I hoped it would tire before I did but I knew that that wasn't likely. Finally I fumbled one of my blocks and was sent to the ground. I always loved the taste of blood, I had to use my last bit of energy to blast it with Ziodyne. Looking around one last time for any threats I collapsed to the ground.

"Senpai? Are you alright?" Rise asked running up to me concern shining in her eyes.

I raised up my injured forearm. "I would be better if we found the others and got some awesome medical work done but otherwise I'm just tired." I replied with a laugh

"All right let's get moving before." Yu didn't get a chance to finish his sentence when we heard the sound of combat down the hall.

"Son of a... sounds like the others came back for us." I sighed rising to my feet. "Well let's go, the sooner we get to them, the sooner we can get rid of these cuts, not that I'm complaining about pain, but pain hurts." And no sooner had I said that the other group came into view.

"Or you guys know what? I think we could just stay here and wait for them to come to us."

I looked over at Yu "That's the best plan I have ever heard."

Within minutes they had fought their way to us and with Yukiko's healing talent we were all in tip top condition. I looked at my arm again and yet again there wasn't a scar in sight. We were all exhausted so we decided to use one of teddie's items in order to get us to the exit. Man was there anything this world couldn't do?

Home- Late evening

If there was one thing I needed when I got home it was food and a shower. Well that's two things but cut a guy some slack it was a long day. I threw some leftover food in the micro wave and stepped into the shower. Man the hot water felt good after the T.V world. Note to self; do not allow Yu to take me on a two man squad ever again.

Stepping out of the shower I was greeted by two annoying noises, one was the microwave telling me that my food was deliciously hot and the other was my cell phone ringing an unfamiliar number.

"Hello Kura speaking" I answered, wondering how the hell another person got my phone number.

"Hey Kura? It's Yosuke." Ah that explained it "Just thought I would give you a call to tell you that we are going back in tomorrow."

"Thanks." I remembered then that I was going to ask him how he got the number off the school.

"Me? Get the number off the school? I didn't do that." Wait, he didn't get the number from the school? "I got the number off of Rise this morning. Anyways I'm exhausted, you probably are too. I'll see you in the morning." With that he hung up. Well well. Rise must have gotten the number herself. The plot thickens. I drifted off with that thought in my head.


	7. When in Rome

Did I ever mention that I hate alarm clocks? As in, hate them with a passion? But what I really hate is getting annoyed with it and skewering it with my spear. Now I was two and a half hours late for school and in a hard sprint.

Yasogami High School – lunch time

I burst through the front doors with during the middle of the lunch hour thankfully, now I didn't have to sneak into class. I got a fair amount of looks when I entered the school short of breath and slightly sweaty. Then again, I've gotten looks before; it didn't bother me all too much. However what did bother me was the fact that after searching through two floors, I didn't find anyone from the group. I even searched the roof and the only person up there was the lady who had a weird obsession with meteorology. In the end I finally found Rise in the first floor corridor looking quite intently at a fire alarm. Sneaking up behind her I whispered in her ear. "I am your conscious. Pull it, you know you want to." However as hilarious as that was to do, the slap to the face reaction wasn't as fun.

She turned around raising her hand for another. I raised my hands in a sign of surrender. Her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates when she saw it was me and that mark on my cheek. "Senpai! I'm so sorry, however you deserved that for scaring me like that." I simply laughed

"Rise, where is everyone? I can't find anybody around. I kind of skewered my alarm clock and missed everything this morning."

"You skewered your alarm clock? With what your spear?" she laughed taking my silence as confirmation. "That's hilarious. Anyways Yu had something to do at home, Yosuke and Yukiko got called into work, some sort of dire emergency and last minute booking respectively. Chie is in the back field training and Kanji is doing his knitting thing somewhere."

"So, with half our group occupied for the day, does that mean that we are still going in today?"

"I'm not sure, although I am sure that if we get the other two in that it will be good though"

"The others? I'll take out the entire army of shadows and pull that mitsuo kid out all by myself." I really didn't think that but it never hurt to pad your resume when talking to the attractive girls.

"Is that so? Well then lets you and me go in today then, you haven't even been to class yet, let's go right now. We will stop by your house to grab your gear and get going." In these cases, I guess it does hurt to pad your resume. I'm not too sure what I ended up getting myself into.

Home

As the two of us walked into my apartment I realised multiple things. The first being that an attractive girl was coming into my room. Second was that I was alone in my house with an attractive girl. And the last thing I realised was that my place was a mess, hell my spear was still sticking out of my alarm clock, my part time translation job was littered over my table and my dinner from the night before was still out.

"Rise, before you come in I'm going to warn you, I very, very rarely receive visitors so my place is quite a mess." As I said that I was doing a quick power clean, trying to make it at least semi presentable. She ended up entering the room just as I was disentangling my spear.

"Wow you weren't kidding about that." She laughed, anyways hurry up Kura-kun we want to avoid Yosuke so he doesn't tell everyone that we are going in without them.

"Do you want to go into the cupboard and grab some snacks?" I ask as I gathered an old shirt that I could get cut up and bloody along with my spear and glasses. "All right" I shouldered my pack. "I'm ready to go."

Junes Electronics department

After stopping at the shopping district for some medicines we made it to the department, however we did not expect to find Yosuke, Yu and Yukiko coming out of the T.V. Rise pulled me out of sight behind a display stand where we could see and hear them.

"I can't believe that you managed to get out performed by the new guy Yu, he has less experience, less personas and less practice than you." That sounded like Yosuke's voice.

"That's a reason why we went in today, to train." That was definitely Yu. "We all have more experience so why aren't we better?"

"Well whatever, let's get back before anyone notices we were gone." That must have been Yukiko. I heard the sound of footsteps going around the other side of the display stand that we were hiding behind. I held my breath waiting for the footsteps to disappear, not letting it out until I was sure that they disappeared.

"What do you think that that was about?" Rise asked me with a confused look on her face "He sounded, jealous."

"I have no idea, but what I do know is that they went in by themselves so they can't get mad at us for doing the same." I laughed when she smiled at the loophole that I found. "Let's go."

Void Quest floor 8

I swung my spear like a demon possessed. I told rise that I would take out the entire shadow army single handed, and I tried my best. We ended up clearing three floors. From the scorch marks on the seventh, it looked like Yu's group took out a rather powerful shadow there. However again I was starting to feel the strain on my body. It's a rather interesting feeling, using your persona. It's as though you feel a great amount of euphoria just before summon it followed by a brief surge of strength, then another brief feeling, yet this time of exhaustion.

After another brief battle with those scarlet coloured tanks I sat against the wall, giving myself time to catch my breath. This would probably be one hell of a lot easier with the others.

Rise stood in front of me balancing on the balls of her feet. "Come on senpai, on your feet, I thought you said that, and I quote 'take out the entire army of shadows and pull that mitsuo kid out all by myself.' Yet here you are sitting against a wall."

"I never said that I would do it without taking a breather Rise." I got to my feet. "but your right, let's get a move on." Saying that I started off towards the stairs.

"Hey Senpai, don't push yourself too hard."

Void Quest 11th Floor.

"That's a big door." I say as we arrive in the entrance of the eleventh floor.

"Hey senpai, do you hear that?" Rise said as she put her ear to the door "It sounds like some ones arguing in there." I put my ear to the door and sure enough there was the sound of someone arguing.

"If that's Mitsuo then we have to go in there. We can't allow him to be killed by his shadow otherwise the case will never be solved."

"Don't even think about going in by yourself, you're injured, you can't have much energy left. It would be suicide."

"Your right so I need you to do me a favour. Take one of these Go-home items, go back to the real world, call the others tell them that they have to get here now. I will stay here and make sure the shadow doesn't go berserk and kill him."

"Your on the wrong side of the sanity line Senpai." I simply laughed "I will be back soon, don't do anything stupid." And with that she faded out. She was back at the entrance and not here to see the incredibly stupid thing I was about to do. As soon as I was sure she wouldn't just appear I opened the door.

Seeing as this was my first time finding someone confronting their shadow, I could honestly say that I wasn't sure what to expect. However what I did find was two guys who looked exactly alike. One was shouting all sorts of obscenities at the other who stood there unflinching.

"Hey." I yelled at the loud one "Are you Mitsuo? The jackass who went around killing people?"

He simply laughed at my accusation "So you think I did it? Well I have got news for you! You're absolutely right! I did it, I did it all! I killed everyone!" at the continued laughter as he said that I chalked him down as bat shit crazy.

"So you don't accept me." That voice came from behind Mitsuo. Well the other one can talk too. It was at that point that I noticed the black fog curling around its feet. I remembered that fog. I retreated back to the wall not taking my eyes off of it until after the fog condensed and exploded. Where the shadow had been there was an oversized floating child with a blue halo like thing on its head, immediately it surrounded its self in blocks continuing on with the eight bit theme. The blocks resembled an eight bit man wielding a sword. It appeared to be simple enough to beat.

"I am the shadow, the true self. Come let me introduce you to your end." If that hadn't sounded so ominous i would have laughed at the mechanical voice, but I had more important things to deal with namely the shadow. I pressed the button on my spear bringing it to its full length and assumed a ready position waiting for it to close the distance. However it didn't, it summoned a few extra blocks and shot them in my direction. Summoning my persona I sent it to take care of the blocks while I charged the eight bit beast. As Tam Lin came into contact with the first block, slicing it in half, the two halves disappeared with an explosive blast sending me flying forward and skidding across the ground. However I couldn't quit, I raised my spear and aimed a couple of jabs in its mid section destroying a couple of the blocks in the process. However the blocks seemed to reform as fast as I could destroy them. I thought to myself that maybe, just maybe, I had bitten off a little more than I could chew.

I backed off to a safe distance so that I could have a quick breather while I tried blasting it with a couple of those lightning attacks, that actually seemed to do it damage faster than it could rebuild its self but it was very draining. I threw a couple of those peach seeds in my mouth which allowed me to blast it a couple of extra times. I actually broke out in a sweat from using my persona so much. There seemed to only be a few blocks left, the shadow had lost most of its shape and I swear I could see the other one in there, the shadow itself. Sucking in a deep breath I sent Tam ahead of me as I ran forward to hit it to break the last couple of blocks. As he came into contact with the shadow I let out a small gasp of pain as a wound opened up across my chest, however it seemed to do the trick as the last couple of blocks disappeared with explosive force that sent me tumbling end over end. There was the sound of a door opening, as I got to my feet I risked a glance only to see Rise there all alone.

"Senpai, are you all right?" she was rushing towards me as she asked.

"What are you doing here without the others?" I must have hit my head when I tumbled through the air. Blood rushed to my head as I stood causing me to lose my balance sending me to my knees.

"Kanji and Teddie are on their way and should be here in a few minutes, I couldn't get a hold of anybody else." Looking up I saw that the shadow was starting to reform its outer shell and if it did that I had no chance of victory.

"Rise, stand back these blocks disappear rather explosively." I summoned my persona and rather clumsily charged the shadow again, only to destroy another couple of blocks and get sent flying again.

"Senpai!"

"Again!" I shouted summoning him again and charging once more, finishing off the blocks but getting sent off my feet one more time. This happened a couple of times, it was getting harder to get back up after each attempt.

"Senpai, you're going to get hurt beyond what we can deal with." She said wrapping her arms around me from behind attempting to hold me back. I felt a wetness on my back, I was unsure if it was blood, or if it was Rise's tears. "Just hold back for another minute, Kanji and Teddie are one floor down they will be here and they will beat it.

I sent Tam ahead of me, this time it would go down. "Rise, did I not say that I would take on the army of shadows and this guy all on my own? You never break your word to a pretty lady even if it means getting your ass kicked seven ways to hell in the process. It goes against everything that it means to be a man. I refuse to be the kind of man who breaks his word. What am I, if not a man of my word!"

"Senpai... I can't let you go and hurt yourself like this."

"Leave him be Rise." Kanji and Teddie walked up to us, they must have entered when I hadn't noticed. "Sometimes a man just has to stand on his own two feet and do what must be done." He gave me a pat on the back. "Go get him"

Raising my spear I looked at the shadow, you could see that it was even starting to get tired. I planted my feet in order to get to speed faster, with one last look at the others I set off at a dead sprint. The shadow sent blasts of fire and lightning towards me of which most missed, I could feel the fire singing the side of my body. However I didn't even slow down. An almost primal yell escaped my lips as I bore down upon him. The shadows eyes widened as even it knew what was coming. The fact that it saw its own end brought a sadistic smile to my lips as I planted the tip of my spear directly between its eyes.

The shadow crumbled into the dark fog leaving the humanoid form of the shadow Mitsuo. I strode back to the wall where Rise and the others were standing.

"You Da man Kura-senpai!" Kanji told me.

"That was amazing!."

"Do me a favour and go deal with the real one, I'm going to sit here and have myself a breather." I told Kanji and Teddie as I promptly dropped to the ground and closed my eyes. I was out cold immediately.

Home

"No I'm not sure how long he is going to be unconscious, no I know that I haven't been to school in a couple of days, grandma thinks I've been staying at Chie-senpai's house." I knew that voice, I also knew that I had been in bed way too long and that I was in dire need of a shower. Opening my eyes I turned my head to the origin of the voice. Rise was on the phone and looked about how I felt, in dire need of a shower and a goodnights sleep. "Yes, I know you're worried I'll give you a call when he wakes up." There was an itch on my nose, I moved to scratch it trying to be silent however, failure was to be expected as there was a rustle of blankets as I moved my arm. "Oh it looks like he's up, I'll call you later." With that she hung up the phone without even waiting for an answer. "Senpai, how are you feeling? You gave us quite a scare."

"I'm fine" my voice was quite hoarse from under usage. "How long was I out?"

"About five days."

Five whole days. No wonder I was so stiff. I hadn't moved around in nearly a week. "You said that you haven't been at school. Why is that?"

"I wasn't about to leave you here all by yourself. What if something had gone wrong? You were not in very good shape after the battle with Mitsuo's shadow, we thought we had lost you."

"Well on the bright side, I'm still here am I not?" I made to stand up, so that I could stretch properly, however as the blanket fell from my body I realized one simple thing. I was clad in only a pair of my swimming trunks. "Um Rise, who changed my clothes?"

"I had Teddie give me a hand with the lower half we had to get your bloody clothes off of you. Don't worry I didn't see anything." Well that was embarrassing.

I felt exhausted. Even though I had slept for five days straight, it felt like I needed more. I looked out my window, darkness was the most prominent thing out there. "Well as much as I would like to stay awake and chat, I am still exhausted." Closing my eyes I tried to allow myself to drift back to the place that I had been for the last week. Behind me I heard the rustle of cloth and a presence climbing into bed. "Um, Rise."

"Don't get any idea's Senpai, this is the best place to sleep and I'm tired too." As she finished saying that I realised that she was already asleep. Wondering what I should do in this scenario I decided to follow and old friend of mine's favorite saying. When in Rome do as the Romans do. Following that I was asleep in seconds.


End file.
